Your Midtown KW Neighbourhood

Hello neighbours!

City staff have been diligently working on reviewing and compiling all the ideas, insights and feedback from the Electrohome community charrette in late April. This post shares the current documentation that is available and expected next steps. City staff has heard resident feedback about needing greater community consultation, along with receiving information sooner. Thank you, Tina Malone-Wright, Adam Clark & Alain Pinard.

They have prepared two draft documents that are now available for review.

1. Pictured below – A 10 pg summary of the draft vision that outlines the history of the building, the context for the community charrette, a history of the tax sale attempts by the City of Kitchener, the current status & realities of the property, its current zoning and the draft vision statement for future use.
2. A 50-page version of this document exists (in hardcopy format), which includes all the preamble outlined above + every piece of resident feedback generated at the charrette on April 28, 2018. Obviously this would be a file large enough to break a website. However, if you are interested in reviewing the hard copy, please contact Catherine Owens or Sarah Marsh.

Next Steps:

1. Please review and discuss with your neighbours!
2. City of Kitchener Staff will host a Community Engagement session + brief presentation in the Rotunda, Kitchener City Hall
   •  September 27, 2018 from 6:00 – 8:00 pm. The presentation will begin at 6:30pm. This way everyone hears the same information and has the opportunity to ask questions.
3. After the Open House, staff will compile any additional feedback and revise the Vision statement.
4. November 5, 2018 is the anticipated date that the Vision Statement will be presented to the Planning and Strategic Initiatives Committee
5. November 5 or 19, 2018 are the anticipated date(s) that Council will be asked to adopt the Vision Statement
6. After the Vision Statement has been adopted by Committee and Council, staff will initiate a second tax sale in late November or early December 2018

Important: As noted at the charette held on April 28, 2018 and in some of the supporting materials, development proposals received following the tax sale that align with the Vision Statement will require planning/development approvals. For example, any proposal to alter or demolish the building will require a Heritage Impact Assessment. The full extent of the required approvals cannot be determined until the City of Kitchener receives an actual development proposal.

Lastly:

City Staff prepared a very cool 3-D animation of what a potential building could look like on this site. I repeat, this is a CONCEPT ONLY. This is NOT a proposal by any developer or the City. No spreading rumours! It’s just a concept to show developers and the community what *could be* possible.